Items
Contributor is exactly
Jasmine Stephens
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2020-07-30
satirical social commentary on state border closures and restrictions.
This satirical article by the Betoota Advocate is a social commentary on varying experiences of the coronavirus pandemic in different Australian states, specifically Victoria and Queensland, which speaks to my own experiences as someone who has lived in both states during Melbourne's second lockdown from July. The article mentions the general indifference or lack of sympathy towards Victorians, as NewsCorp and the general public have seen the second wave of cases in the southern state as being their own fault. This is something I noticed upon my return to Queensland in August, where the general rhetoric surrounding Victoria and their Premier Daniel Andrews' handling of the high number of cases in the state tended to be divisive. I had never heard of the term 'Dictator Dan' before returning to Queensland and people I knew were calling Victorians 'Mexicans', which I put down to the monopolisation that Murdoch media has over Queensland news. I saw these sentiments turn to sympathy as stage 4 lockdown set in, as Queenslanders realised the negative effects lockdown was having on Victorians. This also differed from the indifference I noticed when I first came back to Queensland, where most people seemed to have forgotten what lockdown was like and were living like everything was back-to-normal. As someone who experienced both lockdowns in Melbourne, as well as relatively normal life in Queensland, I definitely did not take the ability to travel, go out and see friends and family for granted, whilst also retaining deep sympathy towards everyone still in lockdown in Melbourne (which included many of my friends and some family). HIST30060. -
2020-08-09T21:28+10:00
Digitally Traversing Social Distances: Zoom Trivia with Friends
This photo depicts me and my university friends catching up over Zoom and playing trivia. We played trivia multiple times over zoom, usually most Fridays, as a regular way to socialise while we were all apart during university holidays and Melbourne's second lockdown. The rules of our trivia games were as follows: every player would contribute $5, different people would volunteer to make trivia questions on whatever category they choose (including memes, dog breeds, logos etc.) and the overall winner that week would use the prize money to buy alcohol of their choice (we are students after all). We also had dress-up themes like sports and beach-wear, and bonus points would be allocated to best-dressed. These nights were the highlight of my week and gave me something to look forward to, breaking up the monotony of university assignments and lockdown. At the time this photo was taken, I had left Melbourne and was in hotel quarantine in Brisbane. This is also why zoom trivia worked well, because whilst some of my friends stayed in Melbourne, many of us moved out of the city to do lockdown with family in places like rural Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia, and Queensland. Social media and video chats like Zoom functioned to connect us in new ways during the pandemic, and shows how the barriers of physical distance could be traversed via digital realms. HIST30060. -
2020-06-30
Meme: Hotspot Lockdown in Brunswick West, Melbourne
This meme was posted in my Melbourne friends' Facebook Messenger group chat in the wake of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews' announcement that certain 'hotspot' suburbs in Melbourne would return to Stage 3 lockdown at the end of June 2020. From the point of view of people outside of hotspot suburbs, it makes light of other neighbouring suburbs turning a blind eye to people who have to go back to lockdown, creating temporary walls between spaces, people and families. Unfortunately, because I lived in Brunswick West, I was one of the unlucky few in my friendship group who had to go back into lockdown. I watched on social media as all my other friends caught up with each other and took advantage of being able to travel more and go out to bars and cafes. As unlucky as I felt, memes like this one always functioned as a way to laugh at bad situations. My friends and I usually coped with lockdown through memes and jokes, characteristic of gen Z humour. HIST30060. -
2020-05-12T17:30+10:00
Finding Light in the Darkness: Sunset from a Melbourne Apartment in Lockdown
This photograph depicts a sunset from my apartment in Brunswick West, Melbourne on May 12, just before lockdown restrictions begin to ease in Victoria for the first time since March. I had spent that time completely alone in that apartment, as my room mate left for Queensland before lockdown began, my family mainly lived in Queensland, and my friends lived outside my suburb so I could not visit them. This was isolating in multiple ways and led to boredom, sadness, depression, agoraphobia and loneliness. I captured many sunsets like this over the months in my apartment, which brought a small bit of light amidst the dark monotony of lockdown. From this view I could imagine what lied beyond the walls of my small living space, and look forward to a day where I could feel safe moving beyond home and my nearby grocery store. HIST30060.